Liberals live in a world of fantasy and other letters to the editors

Liberals live in a world of fantasy and other letters to the editors

July 26th, 2013 in Opinion Letters

Liberals live in a world of fantasy

How ironic that on the day Clay Bennett, who has never had a real job in his life, has a cartoon extolling the virtues of unions (and particularly the UAW), the TFP also has a headline about Detroit filing for bankruptcy. You know Detroit, at one time the auto manufacturing capital of the world that was driven to bankruptcy by the UAW and corrupt and incompetent Democrat politicians.

This reminds me of the environmentalists a few years ago who chartered a cruise to South America to study global warming but their ship hit an iceberg and sank. Oh, the fantasy world of liberalism.

DOUGLAS JONES, Ooltewah

Thompson served county well as clerk

Paula Thompson has announced she is retiring at the end of her current term as Hamilton County Court Clerk.

She has been in the office for 47 years and has served as clerk for the past 10 years. Congratulations to her on a long and honorable career. She has served with honor and dignity. Because she came from the office and had 37 years of experience before becoming clerk, she was able to lead the office from the place of understanding what the position required.

She has been dedicated to maintaining an office that is efficient and productive to serve the citizens of Hamilton County. She will be missed by all who have had the opportunity of working with her. Ms. Thompson, I humbly say, job well done!

JUDY BELLENFANT

Fleischman needs to rethink gun availability

You may not know this, but al-Qaida has been telling its followers how they can get weapons at gun shows without a background check or, in some cases, without ID. So there have been several attempts to ban people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns. The latest was an amendment to the appropriations bill for the Justice Department by U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey of New York.

It failed on a party-line vote in the House Appropriations Committee. Even though a recent GAO study found that over a six-year period, people on the watch list tried to purchase guns on 1,228 occasions and they were approved 91 percent of the time.

However, the Republicans did pass again a measure preventing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from sharing gun data and statistics with local law enforcement, including purchases of multiple guns in border areas. So much for the law and order party.

And who is on the House Appropriations Committee? Why, our man Chuck Fleischmann. As I said, it was a party-line vote.

So Chuck, why do you think people on the terrorist watch list should be able to buy guns?

ROD YOUNG

Bias is alive and well in society

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they're so precious in his sight." Maybe we are not precious in one another's sight. Charles Blow writes "... Obama spoke in an achingly personal tone, saying ... Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago." "... expressing the pains and peril of living behind the veil of his brown skin while the other no longer could ... the president made the tragedy personal."

Must one always be burdened with this unreconciled striving, looking at one's self through the eyes of others. The biases are alive and well in our society. Even in other ethnic groups some families are proud when they have lighter-skinned children. In my lifetime I have witnessed the inequities and biases that prevail. Racially different teachers have been denied fair treatment and respect as professionals within local schools. At administrative functions, I have witnessed unkind remarks directed toward fellow black administrators.

Being married to a darker-skinned husband of foreign origin qualifies me to appreciate this sad fact. The disparity of accepting people of other colors, whether lighter or darker, exists throughout the world. Disparity does matter!